Non-verbal Modes Of Communication Research Articles

The Gradual Evolution of Speech from Linguistics to Sociolinguistics

Fundamentally, human beings can communicate complex ideas and phenomena using simple signs, jesters, and sounds.The sound produced or communications made to express things are referredto as the intricate reverberation produced by certain sound waves to express various meanings. This phenomenon is known as Language. Verbal and nonverbal modes of communication include signs, jesters, written symbols, and visual cues. Language is an organized system of communication made up of sounds and signs that are produced and exchanged to carry meanings. Human knowledge attempts to investigate Language logically and methodically to create a sequence of logical facts that are presented cogently to convey a specific connotation.Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, emphasising meaning, discourse, and other characteristics of Language. It may be conducted by employing systematic scientific procedures involving observations, testing ideas, and formulating hypotheses. The study includes more than sound, grammar, and meanings; it also includes lexicon, syntax, grammar, and semantics. Jargon, slang, and novel constructs created by hundreds of thousands of individuals are combined into Language, an essential and fundamental occurrence. Language is primarily a product of human needs, and it develops or produces new languages based on what is most convenient for humans to convey meaning to others.Since Language impacts social structure and cultural practices, it is a communication factor that preserves social and cultural components within itself. Language is also influenced by social norms and cultural practices concurrently. It is acknowledged that the two components are unrelated. In sociolinguistics, the current study explores the evolution of Language as a social construct and a contemporary social structure.

Development, feasibility testing, and preliminary evaluation of the Communication with an Artificial airway Tool (CAT): Results of the Crit-CAT pilot study

BackgroundA purpose-built outcome measure for assessing communication effectiveness in patients with an artificial airway is needed. ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to develop the Communication with an Artificial airway Tool (CAT) and to test the feasibility and to preliminary evaluate the clinical metrics of the tool. MethodsEligible patients with an artificial airway in the Intensive Care Unit were enrolled in the pilot study (Crit-CAT). The CAT was administered at least twice before and after the communication intervention. Item correlation analysis was performed. Participant and family member acceptability ratings and feedback were solicited. A qualitative thematic analysis was undertaken. ResultsFifteen patients with a mean age of 53 years (standard deviation [SD]: 19.26) were included. The clinician-reported scale was administered on 50 attempts (100%) with a mean completion time of 4.5 (SD: 0.77) minutes. The patient-reported scale was administered on 46 out of 49 attempts (94%) and took a mean of 1.5 (SD: 0.39) minutes to complete. The CAT was feasible for use in the Intensive Care Unit, with patients with either an endotracheal or tracheostomy tube, whilst receiving invasive mechanical ventilation or not, and while using either verbal or nonverbal modes of communication. Preliminary establishment of responsiveness, validity, and reliability was made. The tool was acceptable to participants and their family members. ConclusionThe clinician-reported and patient-reported components of the study were feasible for use. The CAT has the potential to enable quantifiable comparison of communication interventions for patients with an artificial airway. Future research is required to determine external validity and reliability.

Conversational head movement decreases close-contact exposure to expired respiratory droplets.

People constantly move their heads during conversation, as such movement is an important non-verbal mode of communication. Head movement alters the direction of people's expired air flow, therefore affecting their conversational partners' level of exposure. Nevertheless, there is a lack of understanding of the mechanism whereby head movement affects people's exposure. In this study, a dynamic meshing method in computational fluid dynamics was used to simulate the head movement of a human-shaped thermal manikin. Droplets were released during the oral expiration periods of the source manikin, during which it was either motionless, was shaking its head or was nodding its head, while the head of a face-to-face target manikin remained motionless. The results indicate that the target manikin had a high level of exposure to respiratory droplets when the source manikin was motionless, whereas the target manikin's level of exposure was significantly reduced when the source manikin was shaking or nodding its head. The source manikin had the highest level of self-exposure when it was nodding its head and the lowest level of self-exposure when its head was motionless. People's level of exposure during close contact is highly variable, highlighting the need for further investigations in more realistic conversational scenarios.

De(a)fining consent: Exploring nuances of offering and receiving sexual consent among Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people

Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing persons may rely upon non-verbal modes of communication to convey and attain sexual consent. However, this may increase the risk of inaccurate interpretation, sexual miscommunication and potentially, harm. Through an analysis of four online Reddit and Quora discussion threads, this article examines how sexual communication is being negotiated and adapted where at least one party is Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing to better ensure free and voluntary consent. This article offers insights into how sign, touch, lipreading, sound, light and body movement can be expressed as mutually understood cues in clarifying and communicating sexual consent. The importance of clearly understood consent before and during sexual intimacy is increasingly relevant for respectful relationships, education policies and legal frameworks.

Clinicians’ Perceptions of Parent-Child Arts Therapy with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Milman Center Experience

Different types of arts offer a wide variety of modes of nonverbal communication and expressive tools for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The present study was designed to characterize therapists’ perspectives on the implementation of a parent-child arts therapy model for children with ASD. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 arts therapists who participated in the study. The thematic analysis (qualitative analysis) approach yielded seven themes: (1) Therapeutic goals. (2) Adjusting the therapeutic intervention. (3) The advantages of parent-child arts therapy. (4) Difficulties in parent-child arts therapy. (5) The unique contribution of the participants to parent-child arts therapy. (6) The different types of arts in the therapy room. (7) The arts therapists’ assessment of the progress of therapy. The discussion focuses on the four central components of parent-child arts therapy room: the child in therapy, the parent, the arts therapist, and the creative arts.

A Dance Movement Psychotherapy Intervention for the Wellbeing of Children With an Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Intervention Study.

BackgroundSustaining the wellbeing for children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be highly demanding. Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP), a form of psychotherapy with a non-verbal character, may present as a relevant intervention option for this group of children.MethodsA protocol-based group DMP intervention was developed and implemented in two special educational needs schools in the North West of England. We aimed to investigate the effects of DMP on children with ASD using the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Twenty-six children aged between 8 and 13 years (mean age = 10.65 years) with ASD were randomly allocated to DMP and a control group with standard care, following a crossover research design.ResultsResults showed no significant carryover or period effects for either the SCQ or SDQ (p > 0.05). A significant intervention effect was found only for SCQ (p = 0.005) but not for SDQ (p > 0.05). ANCOVAs were performed on the data before the crossover to test for differences in SCQ and SDQ scores between the DMP intervention and control groups while controlling for pre-intervention scores. Those in the DMP intervention group presented significantly lower SCQ scores following the intervention period than those in the control group (p = 0.001). No significant differences in post-intervention SDQ scores were found between DMP intervention and control groups (p = 0.2). However, minimal clinically important differences (MCID) were reached for both SCQ and SDQ measures before crossover for those in the DMP intervention group. Moreover, repeated measures ANOVAs performed on SCQ and SDQ measures following crossover were significant, with the change in both SCQ (p = 0.001) and SDQ (p = 0.009) pre-and post-intervention being significantly greater for those in the DMP intervention than the control group.ConclusionThe pilot DMP intervention has shown promising results on the social and emotional wellbeing of children with ASD irrespective of whether they preferred verbal or non-verbal mode of communication. Limitations and appropriateness of the research methods implemented in this study for their use in a large RCT are discussed in detail. Overall, our findings highlight the value of creative therapies for improving the lives of young vulnerable groups.

Benefaction, gratitude, and reciprocity within the Bible

Gratitude as a response to benefactions is manifest variously in social interactions as remembered by biblical narratives. Attention to key vocabulary, which was particularly developed in the patron-client relationships of the Graeco-Roman cultures, is fruitfully joined with attention to gestures, postures, public settings, and other non-verbal modes of communication to witness how gratitude was an essential to these relationships. This article explores several stories from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament to discern how the reciprocity of benefaction and gratitude operated. It will also describe how Divine benefaction and human gratitude shared significant similarities with these expressions of reciprocity.

Understanding the Wellbeing Effects of a Community Music Program for People With Disabilities: A Mixed Methods, Person-Centered Study.

People with disabilities face inequalities in mental wellbeing, for which social exclusion is a contributing factor. Musical activities offer a promising but complex intervention, making impacts on a population with highly varied characteristics and needs challenging to capture. This paper reports on a mixed methods, person-centered study investigating a community music intervention for such a population. Three groups of adult service users with varied disabilities (either physical, learning, or both), took part in weekly music workshops in different locations. Music staff, housing and resource center staff, as well as participants and members of their families, took part in semi-structured interviews. A quantitative measure administered by service staff was used to rate service users’ social development. Two lay researchers, both individuals with a disability contributed to all aspects of the study. Interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis. Improvements in individuals’ self-expression, confidence, mood, and social skills were consistent with previous findings. Differences in effect between centers included: Group 1, some of whom had previous experience of workshops, showed an improvement in musical skills; Group 2 showed a mixed response, some participated with enthusiasm but others chose art activities over music workshops; Group 3 had lasting positive impact, this group had very limited opportunities for music due to their rural location. Quantitative analysis showed significant increase over all groups in communication, interaction with others, and joint attention. The intervention was beneficial for participants in separate locations in similar ways, but also highlighted that context and prior experience mediated effects in distinct ways. The lay researchers enhanced the qualitative analysis by emphasizing (1) the importance of recognizing participants’ self-expression in non-verbal modes of communication and (2) the importance of having music staff with a disability to provide a positive role model. This paper proposes that mixed methods person-centered research is the most suitable approach to capture and understand the multiple and varied effects of this complex intervention for a diverse group of participants.

More than Words: A Multidimensional Approach to Deliberative Democracy

Since its inception, a core aspiration of deliberative democracy has been to enable more and better inclusion within democratic politics. In this article, we argue that deliberative democracy can achieve this aspiration only if it goes beyond verbal forms of communication and acknowledges the crucial role of non-verbal communication in expressing and exchanging arguments. The article develops a multidimensional approach to deliberative democracy by emphasizing the visual, sonic and physical dimensions of communication in public deliberation. We argue that non-verbal modes of communication can contribute to public deliberation when they (1) are used as part of reason-giving processes, (2) enable the inclusion of marginalized actors in public debates and (3) induce reflection and encourage new ways of thinking about the public controversies at hand.

EMI teacher training with a multimodal and interactive approach: A new horizon for LSP specialists

Teresa MorellUniversitat d’Alacant, Spain
 
 ABSTRACT
 The growing use of English as the medium of Instruction (EMI) in non-Anglophone universities has provided specialists in Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) with a broader scope for research and teaching. ESP experts are now called upon not only to carry out research to support EMI teacher training, but also to be the teacher trainers. In this study, an ESP scholar explores what constitutes successful interactive lecturing according to academics who have taken part in her interdisciplinary EMI teacher training workshop. This was done by analyzing the engaging, verbal and non-verbal discourse of participants’ video recorded exemplary mini-lessons. It was found that the mini-lectures that had been voted as successful made greater use of questions and had a higher concentration of verbal and nonverbal modes of communication in comparison to the lesser effective ones. The findings lend support to EMI training with an interactive and multimodal approach.

Introduction of Indian Sign Language in Inclusive Education

Purpose: The predominant mode of human communication is speech, and whenever it is hindered, humans resort to the tactile-kinaesthetic mode. Use of sign language by persons with speech-hearing impairments is a classic example of such adaptation. The Demonstration School at the Regional Institute of Education in Mysuru, South India, undertook training of typically-developing students in Indian Sign Language (ISL), so as to facilitate communication and instruction of students with hearing impairment who are in mainstream learning environments. Method: Training in ISL was imparted to140 typically-developing students in higher primary classes. Twenty-four 40-minute sessions were conducted over a month. After theoretical orientation in logical bases of manual communication, practical training commenced with elementary manual alphabets, progressed through essential daily-life vocabulary necessary to construct simple sentences and carry out general conversations, and culminated in signing the Indian National Anthem. Results: Typically-developing students gained primary benefits such as improved awareness about non-verbal communication modes, mastery of basic skills in ISL, and positive attitudes towards sign languages. Conclusion: The UNCRPD 2006 authorises sign language as the linguistic identity of the Deaf, and encourages the use of sign language in learning environments. Future research should add to the findings on secondary benefits in the form of scholastic and sociometric advantages derived by students with hearing impairments who receive instructions in sign language in mainstream learning environments.

Determination of Prominent Representations of Domestic Products Advertisements in Kass TV on to Kipsigis Consumer in Belgut Sub-County, Kericho, Kenya

Commercial advertising is part and parcel of our day to day lives which bears vast meanings, thus drawing a great discussion. This study, therefore, intended to study television (TV) advertisements. Television advertisements come in both visual and verbal modes of communication. Meaning is achieved by sounds and images which in turn influence the viewers’ choice. This study sought to investigate how adverts in Kass TV use music, textual and visual images to create meaning and its influence on Kipsigis consumers. The objective of this study was to: determine the prominent representations of domestic products by Kass TV to Kipsigis consumer in Belgut sub-county, Kericho, Kenya. To establish if the prominent representations of domestic products in Kass TV influence consumer choice within Belgut sub-county and to evaluate the extent to which the prominent representations of domestic products reflect the socio-cultural context of Kenya as far as Belgut Sub-County is considered. The study used Kress and van Leeuwen’s Multimodal Discourse Analysis theory, the theory of semiotics and information processing theory. ‘Multimodality’ typically refers to the use of both verbal and non-verbal modes of communication. This study, therefore, analysed the verbal and visual modes of communication in TV advertisements in order to determine their influence on Kipsigis consumers. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The target population was Kass TV viewers in Belgut sub-county because it is among the Kass TV coverage areas and also due to the fact that a wide population in the sub-county is Kipsigis speakers. Simple random sampling was used to identify the respondents. A structured questionnaire which was self-administered to the Kass TV viewers and buyers of the advertised domestic products was used. 186 respondents were sampled. Data was analysed using content analysis with the use of Frith’s table for analysis of layers of meanings (surface meaning, advertiser’s intended meaning and cultural meaning) by employing descriptive statistics. The study was aimed at contributing to the studies of Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) since it sought to analyse how information is presented in Kass TV advertisement of domestic products. It also aimed at shedding more light on letting consumers be aware of the multiple modes that TV producers of television advertisement use to influence their buying behaviour. Television adverts were found to blend visual and verbal modes of communication.

Young children as playwrights and their participation in classroom peer culture of sociodramatic play

In this study, analysis of video recordings of 5-year-old children’s use of language and nonverbal modes of communication (e.g. gaze, action, gesture, and proximity) is used to examine how children contribute to sociodramatic play narratives and participate in the classroom peer culture. In their dramatic play at a restaurant play center and at a grocery store dramatic play center, eight focus children took up narrative playwright roles, where they contributed to the narrative of the dramatic play, mainly by expressing their own needs and by making connections or providing information to their peers. Children took up intervening playwright roles, in which they changed the direction of the narrative, changed or suggested a change of role, or assigned a new role to an object, most frequently by expressing desires or by providing new information. Dramatic play provided an authentic context for the children to try out various social strategies and to observe how others responded to their efforts, in order to position themselves in desirable ways within the classroom social network. Children took up powerful roles through frequency of participation and through directing others’ actions and maintaining the use of desired objects when continuing the play narrative by taking up narrative playwright roles. In addition, they used humor and made imaginative suggestions for roles and plots when taking up intervening playwright roles where they introduced new characters, roles for objects, and plots. Our research provides examples of peers teaching each other in dramatic play through the responses they give to each other and through modeling social approaches that allow them to fulfill desired social purposes and take up powerful social roles in the peer network.

How Robots Influence Humans: A Survey of Nonverbal Communication in Social Human–Robot Interaction

As robots become more prevalent in society, investigating the interactions between humans and robots is important to ensure that these robots adhere to the social norms and expectations of human users. In particular, it is important to explore exactly how the nonverbal behaviors of robots influence humans due to the dominant role nonverbal communication plays in social interactions. In this paper, we present a detailed survey on this topic focusing on four main nonverbal communication modes: kinesics, proxemics, haptics, and chronemics, as well as multimodal combinations of these modes. We uniquely investigate findings that span across these different nonverbal modes and how they influence humans in four separate ways: shifting cognitive framing, eliciting emotional responses, triggering specific behavioral responses, and improving task performance. A detailed discussion is presented to provide insights on nonverbal robot behaviors with respect to the aforementioned influence types and to discuss future research directions in this field.

Multimodal communication in academic oral presentations by L2 Spanish students

ABSTRACTPresenting in a second language (L2) is perhaps the greatest challenge for international students in a foreign academic context. In this study, we examine the multimodal (verbal and non-verbal) oral performances of two L2 and two L1 groups of Spanish students enrolled in a university Applied Linguistics course. To determine the specific demands and challenges that each group faces, we conducted a questionnaire with 16 participants and carried out an audiovisual discourse analysis of the presentations based on a multimodal framework applied to the use of academic Spanish. It was discovered in the analysis of the data that multimodal competence, the ability to make use of and combine verbal and non-verbal modes of communication to construct and communicate meaning, can compensate for L2 students’ linguistic deficiencies. The article concludes with guidelines to support the development of multimodal competence of L2 students.

Museum architectures for embodied experience

ABSTRACTIn recent years, museums have become increasingly engaged with embodied, sensory and emotive forms of knowledge, with personal experience paramount. The question addressed by this paper is: how does the experiential and ‘sensory turn’ in displays affect museum space? Against the theoretical background of ‘embodied understanding’ and its relation to museums, and based on in-situ study, this paper analyses museum settings where meaning lies in the lived experience of visitors. This approach brings to light the common dominance of spaces that emphasize enclosure, invite occupation rather than movement, and focus perception. The paper shows first how these spaces offer spatial affordances for the juxtaposition of discrete immersive experiences. It then studies how they are used as modes of nonverbal communication, together with the sensory qualities of architecture and imaginative implementation of technologies, to create an embodied, affective narrative. These phenomena suggest that the ‘sensory turn’ is stimulating developments in the spatial typology of museums.

Something special: Care, pre-school television and the dis/abled child

Abstract Through a close reading of the series Something Special (2003–), this article explores the implicit and explicit rhetorics of ‘care’ within the remit and content of the UK pre-school children’s channel CBeebies. With its address to an audience that includes disabled children and children with special educational needs, CBeebies is celebrated as an inclusive site of play and learning for its diverse audience of 0–6 year-olds. In Something Special (2003–), for example, Mr Tumble’s playful encounters with the world around him are supported through the use of Makaton, a sign language designed to help both children in the early stages of language development and those with communication disorders. With the channel’s emphasis on learning, development and ‘care’, this article questions the ways in which the disabled child both challenges and reinforces understandings of childhood and development. By exploring the manifestations of touch, texture, performance, play and repetition within this programme, it considers this inclusive mode of address for what it reveals about forms of intersubjectivity and non-verbal modes of communication.

Feminist Thought and Rational Authority: Getting Things in Perspective

This article is about an aspect of feminist moral and political thought that tends to get obscured in central strands of contemporary feminist theory. Its thesis is that, if we are to bring the lives of women into focus in a manner relevant to ethics and politics, we need to take seriously the cognitive power of utterances and inscriptions (as well as of nonverbal modes of communication) that invite us to see things in specific ethical lights. I start by discussing how two prominent strands of feminist theorizing—strands associated, respectively, with poststructuralist thought and Anglo-American moral philosophy—deprive us of resources for doing justice to the relevant aspect of feminist thinking. I argue that we can find resources for a more satisfactory conception in some of Wittgenstein’s later observations about the workings of language. My goal in sounding themes from Wittgenstein’s philosophy is to illuminate challenges of feminist thought in a way that brings out productive connections between such thought and feminist praxis. I close with a remark about the bearing of my argument on a set of ongoing conversations about sources of the conspicuous underrepresentation of women in philosophy today.

Emotional reality: A further contribution to dramatology

This paper is a further contribution to dramatology, introduced in this journal in 2009. It focuses on the two basic modes of communication in any dramatic situation: (1) the nonverbal transfer of feelings and emotions, originating in the preverbal period of the love relationship between mother and child, and (2) the interchange of words and thoughts that develops with the acquisition of language. The early nonverbal mode of communication is the basis for proposing to rename Freud's concept of psychic reality “emotional reality.” On this view, emotional reality is seen as the primary fact of psychological life versus thoughts expressed in words as the derivative fact. Developmentally, emotions and ideas become united in complexes combining the emotional coloration of ideas and the ideational content of emotions. From the perspective of methodology, Freud, his followers, and his critics all conflated theories of disorder and theories of treatment. At the beginning of his journey, Freud was dyadic and interpersonal in formulating a unified theory of disorder and a method of treatment. In later years, he formulated monadic and intrapersonal theories of disorder while remaining interpersonal in his method of treatment, contributing to conflicts among the various psychoanalytic schools.

Daily verbal and nonverbal expression of osteoarthritis pain and spouse responses

The current study applied a model of pain communication to examine the distinction between verbal and nonverbal pain expression in their prediction of punishing, empathic, and solicitous spouse responses to patient pain. It was hypothesized that on days when patients engaged in more nonverbal expression, spouses would respond more positively (ie, with less punishing and more solicitous and empathic behavior). The same pattern was predicted for verbal expression. In addition, it was expected that associations between patient nonverbal pain expression and positive spouse responses would be strengthened, and that the association with punishing responses would be weakened, on days when levels of verbal pain expression were higher than usual, regardless of daily pain severity. In a 22-day diary study, 144 individuals with knee osteoarthritis and their spouses completed daily measures of pain expression, spouse responses, health, and affect. The predicted positive main effect of nonverbal expression on empathic and solicitous responses was supported by the data, as was the positive main effect for verbal pain expression. Results from moderation analyses partially supported our hypothesis in that patients’ nonverbal pain expression was even more strongly related to empathic and solicitous spouse responses on days of high verbal pain expression, and patients were buffered from spouse punishing responses on days when both nonverbal and verbal expression were high. These findings suggest that pain expression in both verbal and nonverbal modes of communication is important for positive and negative spousal responses.